Murdoch company to pay hacking damages in 36 cases

Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi arrive at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi arrive at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

LONDON (AP) ? Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper company on Thursday agreed to pay damages to 36 high-profile victims of tabloid phone-hacking, including actor Jude Law, soccer player Ashley Cole and former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. In a handful of Thursday's settlements whose financial terms were made public, the amounts ran into the tens of thousands of pounds (dollars).

Some 60 people have sued News Group Newspapers after their mobile phone voicemails were hacked by the now-shuttered News of the World tabloid. Other cases settled include those of former government ministers Chris Bryant and Tessa Jowell, ex-model Abi Titmuss and Sara Payne, mother of a murdered girl.

The settlements were made public at a court hearing in London on Thursday, and in some cases financial details were disclosed. Law's ex-wife and actress Sadie Frost received 50,000 pounds (about $77,000) in damages plus legal costs for phone hacking and deceit by the News of the World. Bryant received 30,000 pounds (about $46,000) in damages, plus legal costs.

News Group lawyer Michael Silverleaf offered Bryant the company's "sincere apologies" for invading his privacy.

The slew of settlements is but one consequence of the revelations of phone-hacking and other illegal tactics at the News of the World, where journalists routinely intercepted voicemails of those in the public eye in a relentless search for scoops.

The wide-ranging scandal prompted Murdoch to close the 168-year-old paper and several of his senior lieutenants have since lost their jobs. It has badly shaken his global media empire.

British politicians and police have also been ensnared in the scandal, which exposed the cozy relationship between senior officers, top lawmakers, and newspaper executives at Murdoch's media empire. A government-commissioned inquiry set up in the wake of the scandal is currently investigating the ethics of Britain's media ? and the nature of its links to police and politicians.

The settlements announced Thursday amount to more than half of the phone-hacking lawsuits facing Murdoch's company, but the number of victims is estimated in the hundreds. Mark Lewis, a lawyer for many of the phone hacking victims, said in an email that the fight against Murdoch wasn't over.

"While congratulations are due to those (lawyers) and clients who have settled their cases, it is important that we don't get carried away into thinking that the war is over," Lewis said. "Fewer than 1 percent of the people who were hacked have settled their cases. There are many more cases in the pipeline. ... This is too early to celebrate, we're not even at the end of the beginning."

Many victims have already settled with the company, including actress Sienna Miller and the parents of murdered teenager Milly Dowler, who were awarded 2 million pounds (about $3.1 million) in compensation.

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Associated Press Writer Raphael Satter contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-19-EU-Britain-Phone-Hacking/id-c2e1de9135174467b279cb56d7ae9b4c

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